Girls lacrosse team has a new mentor

This past winter East Greenwich saw a significant amount of turnover amongst its head coaches.
Matt Records – who prior to the move was the head coach of the girls basketball team – took over the boys basketball team for Craig MacKenzie and Records’ former assistant coach – Tori Ahrens – took his place.

Gina Hand (boys and girls swimming), Kyle Mushaweh (girls indoor track), Mike Penza (wrestling) and Sean Fahey (boys ice hockey) also stepped in for their first seasons as head coaches at East Greenwich.
This spring, however, don’t expect the same amount of turnover.
Erin Newman – who served as the girls cross country coach this past fall but elected to take the indoor track season off – is back coaching the girls outdoor track team.
Newman coached the team last season though, so the only real change at the top of a program comes in girls lacrosse.
This spring Karen Lemont will step in for Judy Davis as head coach of the team and replacing Davis will be no easy task.
Since the girls lacrosse program began in 2005 it has enjoyed a great deal of success, winning a Division II title in its second season in 2006 and making the playoffs every season since moving to Division I in 2007.
Furthermore, the Avengers have won a playoff game in four of their last five trips to the postseason.
According to EG Athletic Director Chris Cobain though, he couldn’t have found a better replacement for Davis than Lemont.
“I got lucky in my opinion,” Cobain says. “…I got a young lady who played at the high school level, played club at Tulane University and coached at the high school level for eight years. She also has teaching experience.”
Anyone who has coached high school sports can tell you, sometimes the X’s and O’s are not the most challenging part of the job.
“It can be a daunting task for some coaches when they’ve been nothing but a player,” Cobain says. “She coached some middle school kids so she knows what that looks like and she’s coached some high school kids so she knows what she looks like. I thought it was the perfect mix.”
Only time will tell if things will work out for Lemont and the Avengers but given her résumé’ she seems to be a good fit for the program.